Another great post Will! Thank you. Yeah why is it such a joy to use public transport in Europe while it feels like a hazardous undertaking in this country? I’m gonna take your advice and try out the.SRTA.
Happy to join you on the journey-- perhaps we can ride out to Dartmouth and grab lunch.
I go back and forth on the culture aspect of this topic. There may be something to the idea that Americans are more individualistic, less prone to take transportation that puts them in proximity to strangers. But my guess is that our actual preferences are closer to Europeans-- it's just that our options are different. And there have now been at least two generations of Americans who have lived in places where there's little to no transit, so they might not have had any positive experiences with good transit systems to speak of.
Great post Will. I also believe that programs for the poor become poor programs. Why do folks waiting for the bus across from Job Lot have to sit on overturned shopping carts? Why do people waiting at Stop and Shop have no other option than to sit on the seasonal wood pile in front of the store? At least it is under cover. Oh wait! There's a backless bench for waiting near the stop by Burger King on Rt6. Of course, it's in the wide open. No protection from rain or hot sun.
Yeah, it's pretty shameful. And the fact that we tend to minimize the presence (hide?) bus stops makes riders more vulnerable.
A guy was just killed this past week at a bus stop in Fall River. He was crossing the street after getting off the bus. There is no crosswalk anywhere near the stop. He was killed by a driver taking a left.
In MA, nearly half of all pedestrian deaths occur within 300 feet of a bus stop.
There was actually another person killed adjacent a different bus stop in Fairhaven in recent years-- while I suspect it was someone who had recently gotten off the bus, the info was not in the crash report.
Some of us reached out a while back to see if we could raise money to pay for new bus shelters at a couple of the most used stops in town. The DPW was willing to help with the install. The SRTA person I talked to said they were hesitant to add shelters because... vandalism.
I noted your Fairhaven HS to downtown bus station showed as a 17 minute bus ride in the app, but it's only a 6 minute drive ... heck, it's only a 30 minute walk, and with the wait, I bet that's time competitive with the bus ... tl;dr our town deserves better bus service, especially to the new commuter rail station
Another great post Will! Thank you. Yeah why is it such a joy to use public transport in Europe while it feels like a hazardous undertaking in this country? I’m gonna take your advice and try out the.SRTA.
Happy to join you on the journey-- perhaps we can ride out to Dartmouth and grab lunch.
I go back and forth on the culture aspect of this topic. There may be something to the idea that Americans are more individualistic, less prone to take transportation that puts them in proximity to strangers. But my guess is that our actual preferences are closer to Europeans-- it's just that our options are different. And there have now been at least two generations of Americans who have lived in places where there's little to no transit, so they might not have had any positive experiences with good transit systems to speak of.
Great post Will. I also believe that programs for the poor become poor programs. Why do folks waiting for the bus across from Job Lot have to sit on overturned shopping carts? Why do people waiting at Stop and Shop have no other option than to sit on the seasonal wood pile in front of the store? At least it is under cover. Oh wait! There's a backless bench for waiting near the stop by Burger King on Rt6. Of course, it's in the wide open. No protection from rain or hot sun.
Yeah, it's pretty shameful. And the fact that we tend to minimize the presence (hide?) bus stops makes riders more vulnerable.
A guy was just killed this past week at a bus stop in Fall River. He was crossing the street after getting off the bus. There is no crosswalk anywhere near the stop. He was killed by a driver taking a left.
In MA, nearly half of all pedestrian deaths occur within 300 feet of a bus stop.
There was actually another person killed adjacent a different bus stop in Fairhaven in recent years-- while I suspect it was someone who had recently gotten off the bus, the info was not in the crash report.
Some of us reached out a while back to see if we could raise money to pay for new bus shelters at a couple of the most used stops in town. The DPW was willing to help with the install. The SRTA person I talked to said they were hesitant to add shelters because... vandalism.
Will- I appreciate this Fairhaven insight. Like you, my thinking often goes to: “Where’s my Trader Joe’s”?
I noted your Fairhaven HS to downtown bus station showed as a 17 minute bus ride in the app, but it's only a 6 minute drive ... heck, it's only a 30 minute walk, and with the wait, I bet that's time competitive with the bus ... tl;dr our town deserves better bus service, especially to the new commuter rail station
Yes. They stopped going over the Rte 6 bridge around COVID times, I think. From FHS to the bottom of Union, it's:
- 7 min by car
- 10 min by bike
- 28 min walking
- 29 by bus